Shorts
by MysteryFlare
Summary: A collection of short stories that include a whole lot of randomness, ranging from aliens to awkward siblings, and many other random things.
1. Chapter 1

Tokyo Alien-

Rhode Island, Oklahoma, California, were in the middle of Tokyo and it was a very misty day, and they could barely see the street in front of them. "What are we like doing here," said California feeling rather awkward in nothing but her two piece bathing suit coupled with a matching pair of flip-flops and dark heart shaped sunglasses. "I don't know I thought I was going to get to turn people into sand burrs, I was mistaken," Oklahoma said puffing his cheeks out in a pout. "I just wanted to be noticed," whispered Rhode Island, but nobody heard him over the calamity of noises emanating from the bustling city around them.

Suddenly California was gone, having disappeared into the mist, and into the crowd. "Like yes!" Shouted California from somewhere nearby. They followed her voice and found her staring longingly into a display glass window at a chic lilac dress being worn by a mannequin also donning a floppy large brimmed hat with a lilac flower tucked into the pale purple ribbon tied around it. "I'm going to totally buy it," she exclaimed and dashed into the store her flip-flops slapping against the wet sidewalk.

Inside the store California was devastated. "Like why won't you take my money," California cried trying to shove the money into the clerk's hands. They gave the money back immediately. "Do you take pesos?" she asked and dug out some Mexican currency from her purse. They refused her other currency, and told her something in slightly annoyed Japanese. "Don't you like speak English, or Spanish? Like heck do you even speak French I bet I could even handle that!" The shop keeper took the dress off the counter and returned it to the rack and ushered California out of the store. The bell ringing behind made her fell even sadder about her incomplete purchase.

"Serves you right," Oklahoma said. "We're lost in Tokyo! We don't have time to shop!"

"But it was pretty," California whines.

They continued to argue, and Rhode Island rolled his eyes. Then, something caught his attention across the street. Even through the fog, he could clearly see a bright light... And it was coming closer. "Um, guys?" Rhode Island said, trying to get the others to look. They ignored him. The light drew nearer. Then, it became clear that the light belonged to a person, covered head to toe in reflectors, screaming at them in Japanese. This, California and Oklahoma noticed. They screamed, and bolted without stopping to ask questions. They were followed by a panicking Rhode Island.

The people on the streets were panicking too, not just because of the walking disco ball, but also because of the rapidly moving, floating chicken, which in reality sat atop Rhode Island's head. Oklahoma pulled a stick out of his pocket and then turned around to face the reflector covered thing. "Hey I do get to turn stuff into sand burrs today," he shouted happily, somehow managing to run backwards. A bright white beam of light shot out of the tip of the stick and hit the reflector covered being. It bounced off the slick, shiny surface. "Aww, Heck! Get down!" Exclaimed Oklahoma, he fell to the ground and covered his head with his hands. Without hesitation the other states complied. The beam of energy bounced into a building and it was instantaneously transformed into a skyscraper tall sand burr. "Like Oklahoma," California said staring at the red haired child, "That was totally useless," she growled jumping to he feet. Oklahoma picked himself up and turned around only to see that the reflector thing was literally nose to nose with him. "I hate you New Mexico!" He screamed while fleeing as if his life depended on it.

"How does New Mexico have like anything to like do with this," California asked raising one eyebrow, her ponytail whipping behind her as she ran. "He made me watch scary alien movies last night," cried Oklahoma in frantic rush. Rhode Island gave Oklahoma an even weirder look, "That's nothing try living without my brothers," he muttered. "Less like talking more like running!" Exclaimed California impatiently, and she quickened her pace. "I am running!" Countered Rhode Island.

California rolled her eyes, though they were not visible hidden behind her dark tinted lenses, and intentionally passed up Rhode Island.

"Guys," Oklahoma said slowing down. California and Rhode Island ignored him. "Guys?" he repeated. They still didn't listen. "It's a dead end," shouted Oklahoma gesturing at the impenetrable brick wall marking the end of the alleyway, and the end of their only escape route. "Crap," exclaimed Rhode Island of exclaimed and instinctively backed up as the reflector covered person, thing drew closer. His shoulders bumped into the two conjoined walls that formed a dark, shadowed by an overhanging roof, corner. He slumped down in the corner and covered his head with his hand, and squeezed his eyes tightly shut blocking out the scene unfolding before him. The thing walked closer until it was mere inches away away from the trio of scared states. California reached for the pistol she kept in her pocket book and Oklahoma was hiding behind her, his knees shaking. He had left his bow and arrows at home and his weak magic was useless, he was utterly defenseless, and all he could do was hide. California's finger hovered over the trigger and her gaze was that of cold steel, even from behind her sunglasses.

The being stepped closer and closer until it reached out one terrifying reflector covered hand. And took off its helmet and revealed a pale grey face with no visible mouth, it's head too large for its small body, and too big almond shaped red eyes. "Tony!" California cried out in relief and threw her gun back in her purse. 'America told me to give you guys a ride home,' he said telepathically, doing his very best to remain from using profanity as America had asked. "Like totally thanks," California said bending down to give the short extraterrestrial being a quick hug. "What's with the outfit though," Oklahoma asked stepping out from behind California and flicking one of the reflectors on the helmet Tony had tucked under his arm. 'It's my home world's traditional smuggling garment,' explained Tony. "Smuggling," asked California in confusion. Tony only nodded and led them back to his spacecraft where they all climbed aboard and prepared for their journey home.

Inside the spacecraft California sat in the copilot seat, while Oklahoma having no where else to sit, sat down on one of the crates piled up near the back of the craft that had rainbow stickers stuck on them with some sort of incomprehensible writing slathered across it, and the universally understood symbol of a yellow smiley face. "What are these exactly," asked Oklahoma scooting over on the crate to get a better look at the label. It was even more confusing than some of the spells in his books he had come across from time to time. Tony didn't turn around, keeping his solid red eyes on the screen ahead of him, taking his time to think. 'I'm smuggling happiness,' Tony responded after a long period of utter silence. Oklahoma's eyes widened and he sat silently from that point on, until a hazy though bubbled to the surface of his mind. "I have a feeling that we forget something," he said quietly staring down at his boots that didn't quite touch the chrome floor. "Probably nothing like too important," said California easing the child's mind.

~Meanwhile in Tokyo~

Rhode Island untucked his legs from his body and looked around the dark foggy alley a sense of dread growing ever stronger in the pit of his stomach. "They forgot me," he said fading into what was practically transparentness. He pulled out out his phone and began texting his brother not caring if either of them had the coverage for it. He groaned as he slid his phone into his back pocket and stood up, it was going to be a long week.


	2. Chapter 2

The entrance to the tunnel was also the only way out, and that didn't make much sense to him. There was a stretchy net like mesh between the small bright red pod and the rest of the playroom, that housed several other slides and pods that were supposed to entertain children. The red pod had a blast circle that was attached to two black paddle like objects on the unreachable outside of the pod that were meant to be propellers, the little pod was meant to be a helicopter, if you imagined hard enough. The brown haired child sat down in the middle of net thing with his legs crossed and his arms by his sides. Nobody else would mind him being stationed there, nobody else was in the restaurant's playhouse. Well, except for his twin brother who had been occupied going down the twisty slide for the past five minutes. He was overcome by a sense of fear, the material similar to that of some sort of bungee easily stretched apart, wide enough for a small kid to it through. He swallowed back panic, too fearful to move, he was a small kid and if he fell through there was no obvious way back up or out. "South Dakota," he shouted.

Down on the rubbery, squishy ground outside of the playhouse a small boy with short brown hair, and brown eyes that could appear slightly red if looked at in the right light, sat on foam bench beside of the cubby for the children's shoes. There was a small pair of boots beside of a small grey tennis shoe, the other shoe was loosely on his foot. He strapped the Velcro, and quickly put on his other shoe. He didn't know why his brother was still inside the playhouse, he had gotten tired of it about thirty seconds ago. Where was his brother? A muffled voice called out his name. He looked around, realizing that the voice belonged to his brother. Disregarding the 'No shoes' policy he went back inside the playhouse to find his twin.

He climbed up the triangular shaped blue plastic wedges that lead up to the tubes, tunnels, and slides that were inside the upper levels of the playhouse. With his short legs it was hard to reach the last platform which always seemed much higher than the rest. He stood on his toes and grabbed the edge with one hand and reached up with his free hand a bit further back trying get a grip on the dimpled surface of the wedge then he threw up one leg and did an awkward slide shuffle thing to pull up his other leg and move further away from the edge. He wasn't afraid of heights, he wasn't afraid of falling either considering the distance back down was shorter that it was when going up, he just didn't want anyone to see him fail at climbing.

His brother always bested him at rock walls and other games that tested athletic prowess, he was athletic, just not as good as his brother in some things. And those things happened to be climbing and baking, he would admit he was bad at baking...very bad at baking. He cringed at the thought of the last thing he had baked. It had been a piece of bread from earlier that morning, he had simply put it in the toaster and slid the the little lever to the 2 setting, and waited. When it popped up the bread had became a blackened piece of toast with a still bread inside. He didn't understand what he had done wrong! He had done exactly what his brother had. "South Dakota!" His brother's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he felt embarrassed at having sat there staring blankly into space. He got to his feet and took several steps forward then decided to climb into the yellow plastic tube that connected both halves of the playhouse.

The inside walls of the yellow tube was slick and had awkward circle windows on either side, but with his shoes on his feet were actually able to find some form of purchase, and he was at the other end much quicker than he would've been if he had only had on his socks. "Marco!" South Dakota called out his static ridden brown hair sticking out wildly. "Bismarck!" Called back North Dakota. South Dakota suppressed a snicker, "We're not doing capitals, and even if we were you know mine is Pierre not Marco," he said in a singsong voice. "I'm over here," North said shakily, and waved.

South joined him on the mesh. "What's wrong," he asked. "This thing scares me," he said poking one of stretchy things that formed a grid of empty squares. "Why," South asked standing up to bounce on the stretchy material. He grabbed his twin brothers leg with both hands to hold him down. "Please don't," he cried. "Once again why? Did you eat that toast I made this morning because I'm certain it would negatively affect anyone," he said shaking off his twin's grip and then jumping like it was a trampoline and then promptly hitting his head. He shook his head, he hadn't even imagined himself, or anyone else for that matter, eating that piece of toast. "Well, that's one reason," North Dakota said laughing, but this his voice returned to being small and scared, "This thing doesn't seem um...well, exactly...sturdy," he explained. At that South Dakota laughed. The mesh was made up of several stretchy wide individual ropes that overlapped each other and could in fact be moved far enough apart for a child to fall through to the ground several feet below. "If you keep sitting there you will fall," South Dakota pointed out, he had once seen a chair that was basically a circular chair version of this, and skinny kids and small kids had eventually fell through when they weren't paying attention.

His brother had not been paying attention, and sitting there frozen in fear had not helped at all. "Bye!" Chimed South Dakota and then his brother fell. North Dakota was too alarmed to scream, but he yelped in pain when he hit the ground, it would've hurt much worse if the floor hadn't been made out of rubber though. "Ow," North Dakota said rubbing the back of his head while stars circled in and out of his line of vision. He was underneath the playhouse, and there was no way for him to get out, he couldn't get back up to where he came from, and there was a black metal door with thin bars too close together for much more than a hand to fit through and there was a padlock secured by a chain that held the door shut. "I'll go get someone," promised South Dakota and he quickly exited the playhouse, by going down the slide of course.

North Dakota sat on the floor with his legs crossed, and his head hurting. South Dakota soon came back with an employee who had several keys on a ring in hand. He got to his feet and smiled at his brother through the barred door. The employee looked annoyed as they unlocked the padlock and the chain links slid against the metal as they skunked down. The maintenance door creaked open and North Dakota rushed out. "So, how exactly did this happen," the employee asked, but the twin boys were already gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Minnesota shivered. Even beneath her thick winter gear, the cold all around still managed but to bite. But that was hardly unusual at her house. So she trudged onward through the snow, avoiding icy patches in the hopes of getting to the bus stop without any tragic accidents.

She offered waves to the odd neighbors that passed by, the ones who also understood how horrid it was to still have to go to work with several inches of snow.

She got onto the bus, but it wasn't much better than outside. She inserted her fare into the box and took a seat near the back that happened to be empty. For some reason that day the bus was more crowded than usual. It almost made her think that here brothers were tampering with people's cars again.

She sincerely hoped that wasn't the case, though, as the last thing she needed was the bus breaking her down and making her late. Plus, then she'd have to unleash her wrath on them. Like by giving a really long lecture on life choices.

She sighed, her older brothers were weird, and boys all together were a total mystery.

Even so, she didn't mind all the people too much, striking up friendly conversation with those near her and envying the people who boarded with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. She resolved to get a cup herself once she made it to her destination, to which they slowly inched, stop by stop, until they were right in front of the state capital building.

She stepped off of the bus and into the freezing cold air. On second thought maybe the bus really was warmer. She started off down the street sometimes waving to people, they usually waved actually knew a lot of the people who lived in this city, or well this general portion of the city. It wasn't her business to know them, but she had always figured that a friendly wave or conversation could brighten someone's day.

She approached the steps to the capitol building, stomping snow off her boots when she reached the top. She swiped her key card to get in the door, and the security guard in the lobby gave her a nod of acknowledgement. Like everyone else in the building, he'd gotten used to the sight of a young girl waltzing in and out of the capitol as if it was nothing, and he supposed that to her, it was.

Minnesota greeted him cheerfully and began to make her way to the meeting room.

She walked down the hall until she came upon a familiar door, she knocked, knowing it would be locked. It was only locked for security reasons though. She waited patiently for someone to answer the door.

After a minute or so and nobody answered she began to wonder if maybe her boss was out for lunch.

She double-checked her watch. She was certain this was the time the meeting was supposed to start. But still, no one answered. Someone cleared their throat and she turned to look at the guard. "Excuse me, miss," he said. "I thought I should let you know your brothers were looking for you earlier."

Minnesota raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Were they?" She was fairly certain they had to be up to no good. "Do you know anything about what might have happened to the meeting that was supposed to be today?" She inquired further. The guard shook his head. "I don't, sorry."

Well, that definitely raised a red flag in Minnesota's head, but she had to go look for her brothers nonetheless. They might've kidnapped her boss for all she knew. She looked back at the guard. "Tell me if my boss comes by or if my brothers do," she said politely. "I will," replied the guard.

MysteryFlare: Minnesota waved and was on her way again.

She darted back out the door and down the stairs. Light, fluffy snowflakes were falling again, and she occasionally gave her head a shake to rid her hair of them. She paused and the bottom and glanced around. No sign of her brothers. That is, until she caught sight of a suspicious looking object over in the snow.

She marched over to it, picking it up to see that it was a screwdriver. Not something one typically saw lying around. "What are they up to," she muttered. To make sure that nobody would come by and injure themselves later on the screwdriver she stuffed it inside the fluffy pocket of her jacket for safe keeping.

She continued down the street, until someone stopped her on the corner. A young woman greeted her. "Miss Minnesota? Excuse me, but do you know what's causing everyone's cars to break down? Everyone I've met has reported problems, and I thought you might be able to help."

Minnesota's eyes widened. She touched the screwdriver in her pocket. "They better not be letting the air out of tires..." The woman blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Minnesota shook her head. "Don't worry about that. Can you tell me if you've seen my brothers?" She described them, and the woman nodded. "Yes I saw them that way," she said, pointing down the street.

Her brothers were supposed to be mechanics, yet every so often they went on a spree where they would disassemble vehicles for parts and sometimes trick people into giving them money. Though, they actually did a good job fixing things when they set their minds to it. Minnesota thought about the screwdriver and what the woman had said. She knew it. Her brothers were at it again.

Now, she sprinted down the street, looking left and right for any signs of her brothers, finally, she spotted them, no more than a few feet from her boss' house. "You guys!" she shouted. "Did you mess up that car to cancel the meeting ?!" She received a response of "Um, yeah. It's fun." Minnesota scoffed. "I'm coming over there!" she said, prepared to chew them out for what they did. But as she neared them, her foot slipped. She hadn't noticed the ice. She went crashing to the pavement, and her brothers laughed from across the road.


End file.
